Years of hardship, hopelessness force refugees to take chances

When two migrant ships carrying 568 Tamils arrived off Victoria’s shores, the federal government cracked down, bringing in a tough refugee law that will throw boat people into mandatory detention in provincial jails. The plan is modelled on the one used by Australia – a system that studies say has cost huge amounts of money and has failed. Times Colonist reporter Katie DeRosa, funded by the inaugural the R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding fellowship, travelled to Australia and Southeast Asia to examine the system and what it could mean for Canada and Canadian taxpayers.

BANGKOK – Chandru is in limbo. The 25-year-old Sri Lankan refugee has been waiting in Thailand for five years to be resettled in a safe country. He spent four years of that time locked in an overcrowded, windowless cell in the immigration detention centre in Bangkok.